AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega stated that his carrier’s exclusive agreement to sell Apple’s iPhone in the US… will end one day. Of course, we knew this. You knew this. AT&T and Apple knew this. Everybody knew this, because they’ve said it before. Still, on the eve of a highly successful quarterly results report, where the iPhone once again carried the day for AT&T earnings, they obviously felt the need to say it again:

“We have a legacy of having a great portfolio…that will continue after the iPhone is no longer exclusive to us. We think we will continue after the iPhone…to drive [results]….” [...] “we feel really good about our non-iPhone [subscriber] adds and net adds…. We feel really strong about our portfolio in quick messaging devices, including BlackBerry and all the smartphones.” [...] “Even if we lose exclusivity [of the iPhone], we will be the only carrier with HSPA 7.2 [a network specification being deployed at AT&T] and [new devices] will work on our network faster. I feel as strongly as ever [about] the capability of devices in our lineup and [am] super-excited about the deals with e-readers and personal navigation devices.”

Apparently, like Verizon, AT&T will seek post-iPhone solace in much more carrier-control friendly Android…

[Via Macworld]

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CEOh-SNAP: AT&T Says (Again!) iPhone Exclusivity Will End

Steve Ballmer, whose company produced the single most internet-hostile program in history — Internet Explorer 6 — has the stupefying temerity to state:

Let’s face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone. That’s why they’ve got 75,000 applications – they’re all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.

Okay, Granted, Ballmer is likely looking at that Internet through a “compatibility-mode” colored screen, locked into SilverLight or ActiveX plugins, with ill-rendered box models and complete lack of support for anything approaching modern HTML5, and CSS support, so he probably doesn’t notice that stuff actually rendered using Web standards (Wikipedia it, Steve!) looks just fine on the iPhone.

Since Windows Mobile 6.5, brand new in 2009, uses Internet Explorer 6’s previous-century rendering engine (spare us the — it’s not the same as desktop IE6 — a poor browser by any other name hurts the web as badly), and Outlook 2010 (!) is transitioning to Word as its HTML email renderer (?!) we’re sure he has no clue what the internet is supposed to look like anyway.

But still, even for Ballmer, this is one ham fisted quote. The reason the iPhone has 85,000 apps is because it’s a modern, highly usable mobile device that developers want to develop for.

(For the record, what became the modern Web was designed on NeXT, the precursor to Apple’s OS X, the mobile version of which powers the iPhone, with computing power and screen real-estate we’re guessing might just be competitive with desktop power a couple decades old. B’okay Steve?)

[AP via Business Insider via Gizmodo]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

CEOh-SNAP: Ballmer Says the Internet Wasn’t Designed for the iPhone

During Apple’s Q4 2009 financial results conference call today, when asked about competitive smartphone platforms and devices, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook responded:

Frankly, they are really just trying to catch up with the 1st iPhone that was announced 2 years ago

While many will no doubt argue — perhaps laugh outright — at that, it’s harder to laugh at Apple’s results to date: 7.2 million more iPhones sold in the last 3 months, and half-a-billion more App Store downloads during the same period.

So was Cook just showing his swagger, setting himself up for a big takedown, or comfortably settling into a combined iPhone/iTunes/App Store offering his thinks will be tough to beat in the consumer market?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

COOh-Snap: Apple Competitors Still Trying to Catchup to Original 2007 iPhone 2G

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was put on Charlie Rose’s hot seat and asked the pointed question: “Is the Palm Pre making a dent into the iPhone market?”

Hesse’s response?

Aaah… It’s-it’s doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it’s almost not… it’s like comparing someone to Michael Jordan.

Gizmodo figured they’d remind Hesse that it was, in fact, the same category and that Apple needs competition (the consumer needs competition). Engadget thinks it was a duly respectful and tactful acknowledgement of the iPhone’s success.

We think it’s nice to hear a wireless CEO who’s not so bombastic and, frankly, disconnected as most of them seem to be, as evident by Hesse’s answers on Android, Nextel, the price of touchscreen handsets, and battery life as an impediment to smartphone growth.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

CEOh-Snap: Sprint Says Comparing Palm Pre to iPhone is “like comparing someone to Michael Jordan”

As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was taking the stage for a private company meeting at Seattle’s Safeco Field, he saw an employee about to snap his picture with… an iPhone. So, Ballmer decided to snap instead. TechFlash (via Engadget) reports he grabbed the iPhone from the hapless employee, began making “funny comments”, put the iPhone on the floor and pretended to stamp on it, and then continued on, only to remind the employee he hadn’t forgotten about him later.

Maybe Ballmer should just forbid iPhones at Microsoft the way Bill Gates forbids them at home? Or, you know, get Windows Mobile back in order and make a phone so good no one at Microsoft would want to use anything else?

Of course, if it had been an Apple event, and Steve Jobs had caught one of his employees rocking an Windows Mobile device, no doubt Jobs eyes would have glowed and Omega Beams would have shot out and fried the poor soul on the spot.

(Yeah, we know Apple Store employees all use Windows CE devices to process credit card transactions, shhhh!).

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

CEOh-Snap! Ballmer Publicly Ridicules Microsoft Employee for Using iPhone

Apple PR has just announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and member of the Apple board of directors since August 2006, is resigning that position.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

This comes on the heels of Schmidt announcing he would “talk with Apple people”, and on the controversial rejection of Google Voice and Google Latitude applications from the App Store, both now constrained to WebApp status on the iPhone and iPod touch.

Schmidt already recused himself from meetings involving the iPhone, which with 5.2 million sold last quarter and an platform install base in excess of 45 million, was increasingly core to Apple’s business, even as Google began to explore the platform space themselves.

No word on who, if anyone, will replace him (though Apple’s own chief operating officer, Tim Cook, has widely been rumored as a potential board member for a while now).

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Google’s Eric Schmidt Resigns from Apple Board of Directors

More specifically, Palm’s biggest cheerleader at financial backer, Elevation Partner, Roger McNamee famously gaffed that:

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” McNamee said today in an interview in San Francisco. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

Well, today is July 29, 2009 — two years later and a month later. Given that Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones last quarter, and AT&T activated 2.5 million of those babies, we’re leaning towards a number somewhat higher than “not one.”

Hey, maybe that’s what he meant? Quite clearly, “millions” means “not one”… right?

(Note: Palm did retract McNamee’s hyperbole with a speed that would make Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Open-Mic Reaction Team (SBOMRT) envious.)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Palm’s Roger McNamee Wants to Know if You’re Still Using an iPhone?

Speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm tech conference, AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, discussed the iPhone and it’s exclusivity with AT&T.

“There will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone.”

Nothing was discussed regarding any negotiations that may be taking place at this time between the two companies but be assured that AT&T will do everything and anything in it’s power to keep Apple’s device under lock and key for as long as it possibly can.

All good things must come to an end, however. With that being said, AT&T’s exclusitivity deal with Apple’s iPhone is no different. It will eventually end. Sure there are those of you out there that can’t wait until Apple breaks free of it’s chains from AT&T, just don’t count on that happening anytime in the near future.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

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CEOh-Snap! AT&T Says iPhone Exclusivity Will End… Eventually

When he’s not borrowing CrackBerry Kevin’s personal handset to snap quick pics and give Android Cassey conniptions, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is responding to reporters about his role as a member of Apple’s Board of Directors in light of Google entering the operating system space — again:

“I’ll talk to the Apple people. At the moment, there’s no issue,”

Since Google Chrome OS is little more than announce-ware at this point (or, “darn, we should have made webOS instead of Android?), that may be true, but it’s hardly a tenable situation going forward. What this will mean to Apple/Google relations is unknown. Though right now the iPhone clearly benefits from Google data pipes, especially in the Maps app, how much do they benefit from Schmidt being on the board?

Our guess? Schmidt was using that BlackBerry camera to zoom on the unlicensed Mercedes — and glaring Steve Jobs — that’s been shadowing him since Tuesday, and carefully penning his resignation letter…

[via Macrumors]

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CEOh’Snap: Google’s Eric Schmidt to “Talk with Apple People” Over Continued Role on Board

Sprint and the Palm Pre just decided to bring it to Apple’s iPhone via a perfectly nifty, if factually inaccurate(1), little ad-esque banner posted on Facebook. PreCentral.net already pipped us to the relevant quote post, citing McNamee’s infamous CEOh-snap moment from the past:

You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone, [...] Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.

The relative thriftiness of constraining their marketing budget to a Facebook fan-base aside, does it really behoove Palm to remind iPhone 2G owners that their contracts are up, right after 1,000,000 people jumped on the iPhone 3GS last weekend alone?

How does that compare to Palm Pre numbers to date?

(utter silence)

That’s what we thought…

1. The iPhone multitasks iPod, Mail, Phone, Safari iTunes, and App Store, phenomenally well — the iPhone 3GS more snappily than the arguably laggy Palm Pre. Apple simply chooses not to allow 3rd party multitasking at this point, something that admittedly chaffs, but is still a far cry from what’s insinuated in the “ad”.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

1 Million Reasons why Palm Pre Shot at iPhone Misses the Pot